The use of CRT video display terminals as interfaces to computers has expanded rapidly in the past decade. Keyboards, light pens, joy sticks, and other devices have been used in conjunction with these video display terminals to allow the operator to interface with a host computer in order to enter, edit and select information, prepare engineering designs and many other applications which are too numerous to list. All these interactive video display terminal applications require a physical element such as the keyboards, light pens and joy sticks mentioned above to provide the interaction, but these devices may be cumbersome or otherwise undesirable depending upon specific applications.
Accordingly, in many applications it has been found desirable to provide an arrangement whereby a display operator may interface with a host computer by merely touching the face of the CRT with a finger or other object. This requires sensor arrangements that can accurately determine the point on the face of a CRT that is being touched by a finger.
An arrangement in the prior art for providing this feature utilizes a matrix of intersecting light beams which are all located in one plane in front of a CRT face. However, in the industry, curved face CRTs are used very widely to minimize focus and other problems inherent to flat face CRTs. With curved face CRTs and beams lying in one plane, parallax problems arise which have been objectionable enough that light beam techniques have never been accepted in the industry. With a curved face CRT a light beam is close to the CRT face at the middle of the display area but is spaced further from the face nearer the edges of the screen. Due to parallax caused by this spacing finger or other object not oriented vertically to the CRT face then interrupts a light beam not related to the spot on the screen being touched. This causes operational errors. Accordingly, the use of intersecting light beams has never been accepted in the industry.
Thus, there still exists a need in the art for an arrangement whereby a person may interact with a computer without special equipment such as light pens and without having errors due to factors such as parallax.